27 février 2019

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Kirylo, James D. (2011) Paulo Freire: The Man from Recife
Rebecca Tarlau, education review, February 8, 2013
I quite enjoyed this lengthy review of Kirylo's biography and analysis of Friere's thought. What was interesting was Rebecca Tarlau's perspective, as someone who initially read Friere in college and 'felt nothing', but who began to appreciate his work while engaged in her own community organization. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Your Massively Open Offline College Is Broken
Clay Shirky, The Awl, February 8, 2013

Good comprehensive discussion from Clay Shirky on some of the drivers underlying th concept of the MOOC. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Captain Kirk calls Chris Hadfield at space station
CBC News, February 8, 2013
Sometimes being Canadian is ordinary, it's like having any other generic nationality, but sometimes, like today, it's a bit special. William Shatner, the legendary Captain Kirk, chatting with Chris Hadfield, the commander of the International Space Station. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. NMC Horizon Report > 2013 Higher Education Edition
Samantha Becker, New Media Consortium, February 8, 2013
From their website a few days ago: "The New Media Consortium and EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative (ELI) have jointly released the NMC Horizon Report > 2013 Higher Education Edition." In the 1-year (ie., the 'blatantly obvious') list:

• Flipped Classroom
• Massively Open Online Course
• Mobile Apps
• Tablet Computing

I will make one remark: it's Massive Open Online Courses, not 'Massively'. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. F# Promises a Big Return on Big Data
Tara E. Buck, Ed Tech, February 6, 2013
Here's a chance to learn a new programming language at tjhe dawn of its useful life, F# (pronounced 'F Sharp'). "Last week, Microsoft Research unveiled a new web-based platform, Try F#, to further the language’s use and open development." The link points to an online learning site where you can learn to code using F# in your browser (how's that for using online learning to support a new product?). More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. The Case for a Campus Makerspace
Audrey Watters, Hack Education, February 6, 2013
Here's my problem with the maker movement, 'makerspace' and all the rest of it: it's an advertising campaign for this magazine. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Google, Mozilla Team Up for Skype-Killing Video Call Demo
Scott Gilbertson, WebMonkey, February 6, 2013
What's interesting about this post is not "Skype-killing video calls" but rather the technology behind it (which I might add could just as easily be used by Skype as anyone). More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. MOOCs and OERs
Stephen Downes, February 6, 2013, Conference Santiago de Compostela, Santiago de Compostela, Spain, via Hangout
Overview of some of the early MOOCs we created, along with some more extended duscussion of the design principles we employed in creating MOOCs.

[Slides] [Audio]. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Complexity Explorer
Portland State University, Santa Fe Institute, February 5, 2013
This looks like an interesting MOOC, and I've signed up: "The topics you'll learn about include dynamics, chaos, fractals, information theory, self-organization, agent-based modeling, and networks. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. How Knowledge Workers Learn Judgment
Nancy Dixon, Conversation Matters, February 5, 2013
Interesting post discussing how people who are knowledge workers learn how to make judgements "that require much more that simply following a predetermined step by step procedure." Lawyers, nurses, platoon leaders - all of these are examples of knowledge workers. The post reflects many of the principles we follow in MOOC design. More...